Examining High School Students' Motivation Change Through a Person-Centered Approach

• In Event: Motivation and Cognition: The Role of Teachers

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that learning behaviors are driven by a combination of academic motivations, resulting in distinct motivation profiles. The purpose of this study was to investigate how high school students’ academic motivation profiles change across one academic year. Latent Transition Analysis of responses from 1670 students showed that students can be grouped into six motivation profiles: Amotivated, Externally Regulated, Balanced Demotivated, Moderately Motivated, Autonomously Motivated, and Balanced Motivated. Transition probabilities showed that the balanced motivated profile was the most stable. Also, students tended to shift into adjacent, more adaptive profiles over time. Our study contributed to the current literature by examining longer-term shifts in motivation profiles and offers ideas for possible interventions targeting motivational profiles as a whole.

Authors

• Kui Xie, The Ohio State University

• Vanessa Wanchanit Vongkulluksn, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Shonn Cheng, National Taipei University of Technology

• ZILU JIANG, The Ohio State University